Some of what goes on in early childhood education and care...thoughts, debates, provocations, ideas and experiences...these are my own personal views here, not my employer's

Wednesday, 25 January 2017

Early years assessment in schools: time the game was over

The government’s decision to scrap the unreliable,
time-consuming and expensive baseline assessment scheme for reception classes
was widely welcomed, as was their decision to retain the Early Years Foundation
Stage Profile. As there are no further planned changes to the system, surely
this is an ideal time for us to re-consider some of our practice in the early
years?

Assessment in the early years
should be principled and responsible: it should promote the best interests of
children. The Statutory Framework for the EYFS promotes a play-based approach
to early education with a focus on the Characteristics of Effective Learning –
and so should our systems for assessment. We should call time on some of the
more unsavoury practices in early years assessment which take place in schools.

Firstly, we need to stop playing
games with the assessment system. Children’s attainment on entry is still, in
far too many cases, artificially depressed. Schools all over the country – even
those in affluent areas – continue to report that on entry, children’s levels
of development are below the expected levels. It cannot be true that the
development of more-or-less every child in England is below the level expected
for their age. Depressing assessment levels on entry – whether children start
in nursery or reception – makes it easier for schools to show their “value
added”. But it also has a corrosive effect: it lowers expectations. When I
recently heard that a school leader had asked staff to be less generous in their
assessments so that the children had “room to grow”, it struck me that those
children were unlikely to get the sort of challenging provision they need in
order to become more engaged, creative and persistent learners.

Secondly, we should consider how we
might refocus our practice in the early years so that we develop
higher-quality, more in-depth assessment. That means discouraging the
tick-lists and the impulsive grabs for the iPad to photograph every little
thing every child achieves. Each time practitioners focus on recording what
children can do “for evidence”, they lose time to interact with children,
encourage their efforts or develop their thinking. There is no value in
recording assessment for its own sake: what makes a difference is giving
children attention, time, and the teaching and provision they need. The endless
recording of every child’s progress against every single descriptor in Development Matters is just a deadening
chore.Nancy Stewart, who co-wrote the
non-statutory guidance to the Early Years Foundation Stage, has recently argued
that when Development Matters is “used
as a tick list of descriptors of what children must achieve, it can sadly limit
both children’s development and the professional awareness and skills of practitioners.”
That sad limitation is happening in schools all over England. Instead, why not
focus on improving the quality of assessment information whilst reducing the
quantity? Then we could use those high-quality assessments for something
useful: developing better teaching and richer provision.